Women urged to work for democracy

LAHORE - Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust Vice-chairman Dr Rafique Ahmed has said that women belonging to various political parties as workers should convince their leadership to inject more and more democracy into the parties and hold regular elections to fill each and every rank of the party, including that of the president.

He was addressing a training workshop of political parties’ female workers. The workshop was jointly arranged by the NPT and Pakistan Movement Workers Trust at the Aiwan-i-Karkunan-i-Tehreek-i-Pakistan and was attended by women workers from all the political parties of the country. The proceedings were conducted by the convener of the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust women wing Begum Mehnaz Rafi.

Salman Abid observed that ours was a diverse society which, in order to be tranquil, peaceful and prosperous, requires tolerance, forbearance and a lot of patience on our part. What we stand in need of includes consultancy among us, participation in the political process, the courage to hold the corrupt accountable, ensuring transparency at every level and last but not least, an equitable distribution of resources, he added.

Prof Hamayun Ehsan observed that ideology was just another name for strength. Islam, he remarked, has been grossly misinterpreted, with the result that the masses have been confused and try to find the easiest way however wrong it might be.

The two lectures to be delivered at the workshop were entitled: “the political parties are a farce without ideology” and “democracy in the country is dependent on democracy in its political parties.”

NPT secretary Shahid Rasheed observed that great statesmen have been visiting the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust and having long, long discussions on how to make Pakistan impregnable, up to 300 boys and girls from schools, colleges and universities visit the Aiwan-i-Karkunan-i-Tehreek-i-Pakistan, where they can have a look at the rare pictures of the heroes of the Pakistan Movement.